B&N fans fondleslab flames following Kindle Fire

US bookseller Barnes and Noble has caught fondleslab fever, unveiling its Nook Tablet today to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire.

The Nook ebook reader has been Amazon's hottest competition in the US, with 27 per cent of books sold in the country coming from Barnes and Noble, the company said. And it looks like the one-time bookshop was determined not to be left behind when the web retailer branched into tablets either.

Barnes' Nook Tablet has a dual core 1GHz processor from Texas Instruments, with 1GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage alongside a microSD slot that supports up to a 32GB card, according to androidcentral.com's live blog of the launch.

The fondleslab also comes with up to 1080p video playback and Netflix and Hulu Plus preloaded and 2.5 million books, including Marvel graphic novels. And Barnes is claiming a battery life of 11 hours, despite all this entertainment.

As well as packing the tablet with significantly more storage than the Kindle Fire, Barnes has also got gimmicks like "Read and Record", where parents can record themselves reading their kids' favourite stories so they don't actually have to be there at bedtime. Not exactly promoting family togetherness, but an interesting idea nonetheless.

There'll also be apps, including Angry Birds, the game no tablet can do without, and "thousands" of others; Nook Newstand with "more than 250 interactive magazines and periodicals"; Nook Friends via Facebook; and Nook Cloud for even more storage.

Happy Americans can pre-order their Nook Tablet for $249 from today, while the introduction of the new slab means the Nook Color is going down to $199 and the Nook Simple Touch will sell for $99.

Unfortunately for anyone outside the US, there are no known plans to introduce any of Barnes and Noble's Nooks outside the country. ®